2014
2013 2014 2015 Events Timeline January * January: Further evidence that George W. Bush's War in Iraq was a tragic waste of life and wealth seen the seizure of the Iraqi city of Falluja by al Qaeda. * January 6: Janet L. Yellen is confirmed by U.S. Senate as Chair of the Federal Reserve. * January 8: Emails between Bridget Anne Kelly and David Wildstein contradict for the first time publicly Christie's assertion that his administration was not involved in Bridgegate. Christie cancels public appearance, then hours later issues a statement saying he was "misled" and knew nothing, saying also that, "people will be held responsible." Will Christie? * January 9: Freedom Industries’ plant leaks at least 7,500 gallons of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol into the Elk River, depriving 300,000 people in West Virginia of water for drinking, cooking, bathing etc. * January 9: First International Space Exploration Forum (ISEF) held in Washington, DC. * January 9: NJ Gov. Christie speaks to the press for more than an hour at the Statehouse and apologizes to the people of New Jersey. States that he fired Bridget Anne Kelly, "because she lied to me," and said the bridge scandal was his greatest disappointment of public office. "I am who I am, but I am not a bully." * January 9: David Wildstein asserts his Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions in front of an NJ Assembly committee investigating the closures. * January 10: Six New Jersey residents file a federal lawsuit against Gov. Chris Christie, the state of New Jersey and the Port Authority, alleging the traffic chaos was caused by "deliberate actions." * January 13: Bangkok generates tourist map of locations to avoud protests such as Lumbini Park. * January 13: NJ Democrats establish a new special Assembly committee with subpoena power and a special council is created, along with a Senate committee that also has subpoena power. * January 14: Referendum in Egypt. According to the Egyptian Interior Ministry, preliminary results show voter turnout was a respectable 55% and of those voting 95% supported the referendum to adopt a new constitution. * January 14: Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon dismissed U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's "peace" making efforts: "American Secretary of State John Kerry, who turned up here determined and acting out of misplaced obsession and messianic fervor, cannot teach me anything about the conflict with the Palestinians." * January 14: NJ Gov. Christie delivers State of the State address in which he acknowledges the fiasco, saying it has "tested this administration." But he vows that it will not get in the way of his second-term agenda or define the state. * January 14: Christie's longtime hero, Bruce Springsteen, goes on Jimmy Fallon's show and skewers the governor with a rewritten version of "Born to Run." * January 22: Geneva II negotiations begin in Montreaux. * January 27: Spain's conservative Popular Party (PP) cancels the planned privatization of Madrid's hospitals in response to genuinely popular protests. * January 28: Life well lived. Courageous folk singer Pete Seeger dies of natural causes at New York-Presbyterian Hosiptal at age 94. * January 28: Ukrainian P.M. Mykola Azarov resigns in the face of impending vote of no confidence in Parliament. February * February 7: Montana Governor Steve Bullock appoints Democratic Lieutenant Governor John Walsh to serve out the term of retiring Senator Max Baucus, who will serve as U.S. ambassador to China. * February 9: Referendum in Switzerland * February 10: Marxist public intellectual Stuart Hall dies. * February 18: University of Illinois-Chicago faculty union UICUF Local 6456 walk out for two-day strike. * February 21: Four dead (two women 19 and 45 and two men 30 and 50) in mass shooting at the Cedarville Rancheria (Northern Paiute) Tribal Office. Former tribal leader Sherie Lash, a.k.a. Sherie Rhoades, is arrested. * February 24: Gun Accidents in America in a Single Day * February 26: NASA announces that it's Kepler Space Telescope has discovered 715 new exoplanets. March * March: Battle of Yabroud. * March 1: Crimean Prime Minister Sergey Aksyonov appealed directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin to "provide assistance in ensuring peace and tranquility on the territory" of Crimea. * March 4: Mardi Gras in NOLA. * March 8: CPAC Straw Poll: :: KY Senator Rand Paul 31% :: TX Senator Ted Cruz 11% :: Television Physician Ben Carson 9% :: NJ Governor Chris Christie 8% :: Former PA Senator Rick Santorum 7% :: WI Governor Scott Walker 7% :: FL Senator Marco Rubio 6% :: TX Governor Rick Perry 3% :: WI Congressman Paul Ryan 3% :: Former AR Governor Mike Huckabee 2% :: LA Governor Bobby Jindal 2% :: Former AK Governor Sarah Palin 2% :: Former Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice 2% :: Former IN Governor Mitch Daniels 1% :: OH Governor John Kasich 1% :: IN Governor Mike Pence 1% :: OH Senator Rob Portman 1% :: SD Senator John Thune 1% :: NJ Bidnis Executive Donald Trump 1% :: Former FL Congressman Allen West 1% :: NH Senator Kelly Ayotte 0% :: KS Governor Sam Brownback 0% :: SC Governor Nikki Haley 0% :: NM Governor Susana Martinez 0% :: SC Senator Tim Scott 0% * March 8: Malaysia Air Flight 370 (Boeing Co. 777-200ER) departs from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew members on board. At 1:19 a.m. the last communication from the cockpit is copilot saying, “alright, good night” as the last words. The aircraft leaves Malaysian airspace across the Gulf of Thailand to Vietnam. Then disappears. * March 11: Life well lived: Rail Maritime and Transport General Secretary Bob Crow dies of a heart attack. * March 14: Life well lived: British Labour Party Tony Benn dies at age 88. * March 15: Syrian government soldiers enter eastern districts of Yabroud, last rebel bastion near Syrian-Lebanese border north of Damascus. * March 16: Another step toward tyranny in Turkey as Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan bans Twitter. * March 19: U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation joins governemnt of Malaysia’s inquiry into the disappearance of FLight 370, including analyis of data deletions from pilot’s home flight simulator on February 3, 2014. * March 20: Syrian troops re-capture Crusader castle Crac des Chevaliers from Sunni Islamist insurgents supported by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and elements of the foreign policy establishments in Washignton, London and Paris. * March 23: Defending the safe haven inside Turkey of the Syrian Sunni Islamist insurgency against the government fo Syria, Turkish F-16s shoot down Syrian aircraft that Ankara claimed was over Turkish airspace. At an election rally in Northwest Turkey, a bellicose Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan thunders, "Our F-16s took off and hit this plane. Why? Because if you violate my airspace, our slap after this will be hard." * March 24: Egyptian court sentences 529 people to death for killing a single police officer, the attempted murder of two others, and attacking a police station in the Nile Valley city of Minya in August 2013. * March 24: NJ Gov. Chris Cbristie's internal investigation by Gibson Dunn & Crutcher declares Christie not responsible for Bridgegate. Links between the investigating firm and Christie undermine confidence in the conclusion. * March 26: Egypt’s chief prosecutor orders two new mass trial for 919 Islamists. * March 27: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan bans Video That Got YouTube Banned in Turkey April * April 5-6: Survival Preppers Expo (Bloomington MN) * April 7: 75 year old Dutch Jesuit priest Father Francis Van Der Lugt is assassinated in Homs, Syria, probably by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria terrorists. * April 9: 16-year-old Alex Hribal stabs and wounds 21 people in his Murrysville, Pennsylvania high school's hallways with two kitchen knives. Rather than ask how many might have DIED if he had had firearms, the news media obediently focus news coverage on his possible mental illness, about which they possess no information. * April 12-13: Mother Earth News Fair (Fletcher NC) * April 13: Wingnut anti-semite and white supremicist Frazier Glenn Miller is taken into custody for killing three at the Jewish Community Center in Kansas City, Kansas. May * May 13: Disaster at privatized coal mine in Soma, Turkey kills 298 workers. * May 16: Operation American Spring, a crypto fascist "March on Rome", produces a crowd of approximately 100 wingnut protesters and undercover FBI agents in Washington, DC. Delusional organizers had promised a crowd of 10,000,000 to 30,000,000. * May 22: European Parliament Election * May 29: Florida Democratic U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) demands a voice vote on his amendment to the FY 2015 Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations bill to provide a near-absolute shield for reporters against compulsory disclosure of their confidential sources. He wins 225-183. June * June 5-7: How Class Works Center for the Study of Working Class Life Conference, SUNY Stony Brook. * June 6: After numerous arrests for felony drug possession and guns, Dennis Marx is killed in armed attempt to seize County Courthouse in Cuming, Georgia. A deputy sheriff is wounded. * June 8: Anti-government conspiracist/wingnuts associated with one time Fox News darling Cliven Bundy, Jerad and Amanda Miller kill three and then die in shootout in Las Vegas, NV. Their civilian victim was armed with a gun and yet it did no good. * June 21: Iowa Democratic Partys State Convention. * June 28-28: Texas Democratic Party 2014 State Convention July * July 19: In Gaza, an Israeli air strike on Beit Hanoun kills eight members of the Abu Jarad family, including a six-month-old baby and three small children. August * August 9: Crisis in Ferguson, Missouri as an unarmed Michael Brown is killed by a police officer under circumstances that suggest racist panic. Buzzfeed timeline * August 18: Further militarization in St. Louis: Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon orders the National Guard deployed to Ferguson. September * September 18: Scotland votes on independence from UK * September 21-24: British Labour Party Annual Conference December * December: Venezuela's chief prosecutor charges opposition figure Maria Corina Machado with conspiracy to assassinate President Maduro. * December 22: Dakota Access, LLC presented an application to the Public Service Commission to build a 358-mile pipeline that would run from the Baaken/Three Forks play through seven counties in the western part of the state.